Leveraging the Collective Intelligence and Effort of Digital Crowds

October 31, 2015

Read The Full Prompt

In this module we have examined how firms can leverage digital technologies to harness the power of collective intelligence from the crowds to tackle a range of problems such as innovation problems and funding startups. For this assignment you have three options:

1 – Pick one industry where no firms have leveraged crowds, and come up with a crowd-based business model that may potentially transform the industry. Describe how you plan to create and capture value. Explain why the crowd will participate, and why your crowd-based model is better than the current model employed by the incumbents.

2 – Describe a company that is using crowds (external or internal) in an innovative manner. Describe how they incentivize participation and manage the crowd. What are the challenges? Describe how value creation and value capture occur, and the growth potential of this business.

3 – Companies often struggle with crowds as well. Describe failed crowdsourcing efforts and explain how and why the company failed. Given what you have learned in the course, what would you do differently?

Create an approximately 500-750 word post to make your contribution. Please create appropriate tags for your post. Please also respond to and comment on three other posts per module. Feel free to use graphics, data, videos and links to other sites to corroborate your points.

Please prepare a two minute pitch about your blog entry before the class.

Submitted (136)

Facebook – Crowd-sourced translation
RS
Last modified on October 28, 2015 at 8:06 pm
How Facebook used crowdsourced translation to spur international growth
SoFi: Crowdfunding Student Debt
AP
Last modified on October 30, 2015 at 7:54 pm
SoFi is a non-bank lender leveraging crowdfunding to transform student loan markets
Crowdsourcing Healthcare
s
Posted on October 31, 2015 at 6:04 pm
The online physician social networking platform, SERMO, may have the potential to solve some of healthcare's trickiest problems. But, can it break into the current models of care?
Oscar: Flirting with behavioral risk based pricing strategies
Andrea MF
Posted on October 29, 2015 at 7:06 pm
Introducing data collection through emerging technologies to innovate in the heavily regulated space of insurance companies
Assembling a great team by asking fans who they want to see
Oded
Posted on October 31, 2015 at 8:28 pm
Professional sport teams can improve their rosters by crowdsourcing ideas from their fan base.
Hype Machine: The Crowd-Sourced Music Blog
CSS
Posted on October 27, 2015 at 8:13 am
Founded in 2005, Hype Machine sources music through a hand-picked catalogue of music blogs from around the world.
Increasing flight safety using crowds
BS
Posted on October 31, 2015 at 11:48 pm
Aviation has long used crowds to increase flight safety in the form of the pilot report, or PIREP. Digital transformation combined with a renewed commitment to the crowd could further reduce in-air risk and even save lives.
Foldit – Solving Puzzles for Science
Tikola Nesla
Posted on October 27, 2015 at 9:31 pm
Foldit’s innovative approach solves the age old issue that science needs more people. Foldit has gamified protein folding so that anyone, not just scientists, can cure diseases.
Audiodraft: Crowdsourcing music skips a beat
uilc
Posted on October 31, 2015 at 6:05 pm
Audiodraft is a crowdsourcing platform where anyone can pay for custom music through contests or commission.  The target customer turned out to be advertising agencies who would run contests so that various unknown or known artists could bid on projects [...]
CrowdMed – using crowds for clinical diagnostics
HF
Last modified on November 3, 2015 at 3:00 pm
CrowdMed uses the knowledge of thousands of "experts" to solve difficult medical cases
Our community gives a Hoot
Becky D
Last modified on November 3, 2015 at 3:00 pm
Hootsuite leverages its loyal online community to crowdsource customer support, in turn reducing internal support costs.
Quora: Crowdsourced Answers
Anndrea Moore
Posted on December 8, 2015 at 8:03 am
“a place to get answers, to share what you know, to read, and to think” Quora is a website that allows users to anonymously post questions on a variety of topics and receive answers from anyone. The best answers are [...]
Crowdstorming the Hyperloop: JumpStartFund, HTT, and SpaceX
(Wo)Man in the Arena
Last modified on October 31, 2015 at 8:32 pm
By reaching to the crowd- for crowdstorming in early stages, crowdsourcing in middle stages, and crowdfunding in all stages- HTT, SpaceX, and friends can bring a seemingly unreachable technology to the masses.
Everyone on the Internet is an Expert
brandon
Posted on November 2, 2015 at 12:11 am
As I pen this likely masterpiece, I contemplate two things: (a) why in Heaven’s name was a blog post due on a Saturday night*, and (b) how well is humankind doing in its quest to semantically structure the world’s information? [...]
DLife: Facilitated Network for Diabetes Patients
Mike Maley
Posted on October 30, 2015 at 3:56 pm
DLife is a social network of sorts connecting diabetes patients with one another to share knowledge and information about managing the disease - but does sharing medical advice go too far?
Julep: Defining beauty by numbers
MR
Last modified on November 3, 2015 at 3:00 pm
From internet to store/house, Julep has been redefining the way beauty products are launched and consumed
Crowdtesting with Testbirds – leveraging the crowd intelligence for bug-free products
SJB
Last modified on November 3, 2015 at 3:00 pm
Testbirds - a crowdtesting platform for software and hardware helps clients to find bugs and errors leveraging the crowd.
The next crowdsourcing battleground: your car
ilny
Posted on October 30, 2015 at 10:24 am
The true consumer value to be unlocked in the automotive industry no longer lies in hardware. To explore the vast possibilities of integrating vehicles into internet of things, boosting in-vehicle infotainment systems and increasing safety with data usage, automakers should [...]
Creative Action Network: Making the Classics Cool
Pinky and the Brain
Last modified on October 29, 2015 at 10:16 pm
Creative Action Network is removing barriers to help students enjoy reading classic works of literature via creativity!
This.cm – the Facebook News Feed Replacement for Great Articles
BrittW
Posted on October 31, 2015 at 12:35 pm
This.cm - the latest news aggregating platform - relies on crowds to post articles, follow members, and "Thank" members for posting great articles. It has the potential to replace your Facebook News Feed as your go-to place for great news [...]
Yik Yak is Crowd-Sourcing Funny
ecashman
Posted on November 2, 2015 at 1:02 am
Yik Yak is crushing funny through crowd-sourcing.
Her Campus – The scalable digital magazine
Qing
Posted on October 31, 2015 at 11:29 pm
Business Model Her Campus is an online magazine that prides itself in being the number 1 online community for college women. The company has more than 7,000 contributors from 290+ schools writing articles on topics such as style, beauty, career, [...]
New Freelancer Opprotunity
HBSSectB
Last modified on October 31, 2015 at 6:46 pm
WriterAccess provides an online content writing platform where customers can access over 10,000 rated U.S. writers, place orders and manage work flow using built-in planning and performance tools. The 14-person firm, headquartered in Boston, pulled in $4.4 M in revenue [...]
Lending Club shakes up the loan market
SC
Posted on November 2, 2015 at 7:21 am
Lending club's business model is challenging the way we think about loans by leveraging their crowdfunding community to fund loans.